Portable telephone with voice-prompted menu screens

ABSTRACT

The portable telephone of the present invention provides an environment in which recording/playing back of user&#39;s voice is made possible at each of the menu screens. Operations of a portable telephone can be smoothly performed by adding voice information to each menu screen. 
     There are provided a memory device ( 4 ) for storing voice data, a microphone ( 1 ) and a speaker ( 7 ) for inputting/outputting voice, an encoder ( 2 ) and a decoder ( 6 ) for performing digital/analog conversion of voice, and a key operating portion ( 9 ) for achieving recording or playing back of voice by a first key operation and determining an input operation and executing recording or playing back of voice by a second key operation. Not only character information displayed on a display, but also guides or information by voice messages, can be obtained and, therefore, erroneous operations made by the user can be eliminated.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to a portable telephone having a voicerecording and playing back function.

BACKGROUND ART

Referring to conventional voice recording functions of portabletelephones, in many cases, there have been recording methods of onlynarrow scope. For example, some of them are equipped with only afunction for registering telephone numbers by voice. Otherwise, asdisclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-open No. Hei 8-32670, one may registernames by voice that have been previously registered. Still others aresuch that they only take memos by voice. Thus, users of portabletelephones have been unable to select other methods than those mentionedabove.

Japanese Patent Laid-open No. Hei 4-314242 discloses a cordlesstelephone giving, by voice, notices about the running down of itsbattery, alarms about its talking range, guides to its variousfunctions, and so on. On the other hand, portable telephones are tendingto become more and more multi-functional and, keeping pace with this,users are increasingly operating the portable telephone only accordingto displays made on the screen.

However, as the operations become complicated, there arises the problemthat the user makes similar mistakes again and again before reaching awanted menu screen because of the small amount of information availablefrom the display (indication) on the screen.

The present invention was made in order to solve the above mentionedproblem. Accordingly, it is an object of the invention to provide aportable telephone in which it is made possible to make voice recordingof all the menu/memory screens. Further, it is possible, when a menuscreen is accessed again, to play back the voice recorded thereat.

It is another object of the invention to provide a portable telephone inwhich it is possible to instantly reach a desired menu screen only bymeans of played back voice sounds.

DISCLOSURE OF INVENTION

The portable telephone according to the invention includes a microphone(1) for receiving a voice input and a speaker (7) for delivering a voiceoutput. The portable telephone has the function of recording and playingback the sound input from the microphone (1) at each of the menuscreens. A control portion (8) of the portable telephone comprises anencoder (2) for converting an input signal from the microphone (1) intoa digital signal, a memory device (4) for storing converted voice data,a decoder (6) for taking out data from the memory device, converting itinto an analog signal, and playing back and outputting the analog signalfrom the speaker (7). A key operating portion (9) of the portabletelephone is adapted to achieve recording or playing back of voice by afirst key operation and to determine an input operation and executerecording or playing back of voice by a second key operation.Accordingly, not only character information displayed on the display,but also guides or information by voice messages, can be obtained fromthe portable telephone. Further, the user can record any message at willas a voice message, and therefore the portable telephone can not only beused for telephoning but also has a potential for various otherapplications.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a structure of a portable telephoneaccording to the invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a voice recording operation in anembodiment 1.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the storage area of a memory device inthe embodiment 1.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a voice playing back operation in theembodiment 1.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a voice recording/playing back operationin an embodiment 2.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing the storage area of a memory device inthe embodiment 2.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing an operating method in an embodiment 3.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing an operating method in an embodiment 4.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram showing the storage area of a memory device inthe embodiment 4.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing a voice recording/playing back operationin an embodiment 5.

FIG. 11 is a block diagram showing the storage area of a memory devicein the embodiment 5.

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

An embodiment 1 of the invention will be described with reference toFIG. 1.

A control portion 8 of a portable telephone shown in FIG. 1 comprises amicrophone 1 for receiving a voice input, an encoder 2 for convertingthe input analog signal into a digital signal, a memory device (ROM) 3storing voice data in advance, a memory device (RAM) 4 for storing newvoice data, a controller 5 for controlling these memory devices 3 and 4,a decoder 6 for taking out data from the memory devices 3 and 4 andconverting the data into voice data to be played back and output fromthe speaker 7. A key operating portion 9 comprises a function key 10, aselect key 11, a call key 12, and numeric keys 13 (0-9, *, #). A displaysection 14 is formed from an LCD 15 for displaying characters. Referencenumeral 16 denotes a radio portion of the portable telephone.

An operating method for recording voice will be described with referenceto FIG. 2. First, the function key 10 and the numeric key 13 are used toaccess a relevant menu screen (step S1). The menu screen is displayed onthe LCD 15 (step S2). When the screen at which voice inputting isrequired has appeared, the function key is depressed for a long time(step S3) by which means the mode is switched to a voice record/playbackmode (step S4). The user pushes down the numeric key 13 and the selectkey 11 to select the recording mode and then, according to the user'sneeds, records a message at this screen (step S5). The voice is passedthrough the microphone 1 and the encoder 2 and stored, as voice data, inthe memory device 4 (steps S6 and S7).

The structure of the above mentioned memory device 4 is shown in FIG. 3.In the memory device (RAM) 4, there are stored address numbers 4 a (0,1, 2, . . . ) corresponding to each of the menu (memory) screens andvoice data 4 b corresponding to each of the address numbers. Forexample, address numbers 4 a are respectively assigned to the SMS (shortmessage services) edit screens and voice data 4 b corresponding to thesenumbers are stored in the corresponding storage areas.

Now, playback of stored voice will be described with reference to FIG.4. When the same menu (memory) screen has been accessed by using thesame method as in the recording of the voice (step S11), the menu(memory) screen is displayed on the LCD 15 (step S12). By pushing downthe function key 10 for a long time at this screen (step S13), the modeis switched to the voice record/playback mode (step S14) . The userselects “playback” of “playback/record” by depressing the select key 11(step S15). After the selection has been made, the voice data is takenout from the memory device (RAM) 4 in accordance with the address numberin the menu screen at which the mode was switched to the playback mode(step S16). The voice data is converted into an analog signal in thedecoder 6 and the voice is output from the speaker 7.

Now, an embodiment 2 will be described with reference to FIG. 5. While amethod was described in the embodiment 1 in which each of menu (memory)screens was accessed and voice was recorded by long-time depressing ofthe function key 10, such operations may be allocated to each of thenumeric keys 13. Thus, by depressing the relevant numeric key 13 for alongtime (step S21), the record/playback mode can be switch-selected(step S22).

When recording-voice, the user, after selecting the record mode by usingthe numeric key 13 and select key 11 (step S23), inputs his or her voiceby the microphone 1. Then, the voice data 4 b is stored in the memorydevice (RAM) 4, and assigned to the address 4 c corresponding to the keynumber as shown in FIG. 6 (steps S24 and S25). When playing back thevoice, the user depresses the numeric key 13 for a long time as aboveand, after the record/playback mode has been selected, switches the modeto the playback mode (step S23). At this time, the voice data 4 b at theaddress 4 c corresponding to the key in question is taken out from thememory device (RAM) 4 (step S26) and, after the data has been convertedinto an analog signal in the decoder 6, the voice is output from thespeaker 7 (step S27).

Now, an embodiment 3 will be described with reference to FIG. 7. In thecase of the embodiment 1, when taking out the voice data 4 b stored inthe memory device (RAM) 4, the voice data 4 b was taken out by accessingthe menu (memory) screens one after the other. However, as shown in FIG.7, by pushing down a call key 12 (step S31), the addresses at which thevoice data are stored are searched, voice data are taken out byascending order of the addresses at which the voice data are stored, andthe data, after being converted into analog signals in the decoder 6,are played back one after the other from the speaker 7 every time thecall key 12 is pushed down (steps S32 and S33).

Here, the method whereby the user calls the screen at which the voice,which is being played back, was recorded will be described. When theuser depresses the select key when the voice which is being called isplayed back (step S34), the menu screen is retrieved from anotherstorage area in accordance with the address corresponding to the menuscreen at which the voice was recorded and, after retrieval, it isdisplayed on the display (step S35). Thus, the method is used also as ashortcut function to a menu (memory) screen.

Further, an embodiment 4 will be described with reference to FIG. 8. Intaking out voice data stored in the memory device (RAM) 4, inembodiments 1-3, the playback was achieved by pushing down some keys.However, it may also be achieved by means of a timer function. Namely,as shown in FIG. 8, a preset record/playback screen for a timer isdisplayed and, upon accessing the screen, voice is recorded (stepsS41-S46). The memory device (RAM) 4 has a storage area for timer asshown in FIG. 9, and the voice data 4 b is stored at a preset address 4d for timer (step S47). A period of time is set in the timer functions.When the set period of time has elapsed, the timer is actuated (stepS48). Then a check is made as to whether the voice data is stored at theaddress 4 d for timer of the storage area for timer in the memory device(RAM) 4. When it is stored therein, the voice is played back from thespeaker according to the same method as in the embodiment 1 (step S49).

Further, an embodiment 5 will be described with reference to FIG. 10. Inthe embodiment 1, a method in which a user's voice is recorded in eachmenu/memory screen was described. However voice data already recorded inthe ROM 3 may be used instead.

Referring to FIG. 10, steps S51-S53 are the same as steps S1-S3 in theembodiment 1. In step S54, the mode is switched to a record/playbackmode and this mode is displayed on the LCD 15. At this point of time,the user makes a setting to select either RAM recording to record his orher voice or ROM recording to utilize a message recorded in the ROM, byusing a relevant numeric key 13 and the select key 11. When the use ofthe voice data stored in the ROM is selected (step S55), the voice datastored in the ROM are played back one after the other (step S56). Theuser, immediately after the relevant message has been played back,depresses the select key 11 and selects the message (step S57). Theselected message causes the corresponding ROM message number to bestored in the memory device (RAM) 4 in accordance with the addressnumber in the menu/memory screen switched to the record mode. FIG. 11shows the storage area in the memory device, in which the selectedmessage number as above is stored in the memory device at thecorresponding address. Then, when playing back the voice, the playbackmode is selected at each of the menu (memory) screens (step S59). Then,the voice data is taken out from the ROM in accordance with the ROMmessage number corresponding to the address stored in the memory device(step S60) and the voice is played back (step S61).

In the portable telephone according to the invention, not only characterinformation displayed on the display, but also guides or information byvoice messages, can be obtained. Further, since the user can record anymessage at will as a voice message, the portable telephone can not onlybe used for telephoning but also has a potential for various otherapplications.

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY

The portable telephone according to the invention, as described above,provides guides and information by voice messages at each of the menuscreens, and therefore it is fit for use by persons with weak eyesight.

What is claimed is:
 1. A portable telephone including a microphone forreceiving a sound input and a speaker for delivering a sound output, anda display for displaying a plurality of menu screens, each menu screenhaving a plurality of selectable functions contained therein, and eachmenu screen being associated with an address, said portable telephonecomprising: a keypad including a plurality of operation keys; a memorydevice for storing sound data corresponding to said sound input to saidmicrophone; a control portion having a function to record sound datainput from said microphone during display of one of said plurality ofmenu screens, as digital data into said memory device at an addresscorresponding to the address associated with the menu screen beingdisplayed, and outputting an analog signal converted from said digitaldata through said speaker upon performing one of subsequent display ofsaid menu screen and operation of a particular key on said keypad.
 2. Aportable telephone according to claim 1, having a function of recordingand playing back an input voice from said microphone in accordance witheach numeric key of numeric keys provided in said keypad.
 3. A portabletelephone according to claim 1, adapted to play back recorded voices oneafter the other and allow access to a menu screen at which a voice beingplayed back was recorded.
 4. A portable telephone according to claim 1,adapted, by the use of a timer function, to play back a recorded voicewhen a predetermined period of time has elapsed.
 5. A portable telephoneaccording to claim 1, adapted to be selectively switched so as to playback either voice data recorded in a ROM in advance or voice datarecorded in a RAM.